The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed satisfaction with a scheme by Gujarat government to pay upto a maximum Rs. 50,000 as ex-gratia assistance to authorised religious places damaged, destroyed or desecrated during the 2002 communal riots in the state.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and P.C. Pant, in a judgment, said the scheme places the riots-affected religious structures “on par” with “houses destroyed or damaged” in the riots.
The 49-page judgment, authored by Chief Justice Misra, endorsed an earlier view of the Supreme Court in the Prafull Goradia judgment that it would be a violation of Article 27 of the Constitution if a “substantial part” of the tax-payers' money was spent on distribution of compensation to destroyed religious structures.
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The State government had appealed to the Supreme Court shortly after the Gujarat High Court in February 2012 ordered it to compensate the owners of religious structures destroyed in the riots.
The HC order came on a public interest petition filed by the NGO, Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat (IRCG), to survey “the mosques, dargahs, graveyards, khankahs and other religious places and institutions desecrated, damaged and/or destroyed during the communal riots in 2002”.
Article 27 forbids the State from compelling a person to pay taxes for promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination.
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Chief Justice Misra observed that the “object of Article 27 is to maintain secularism”. The judgment quotes the Goradia verdict to say the Article would be “violated” if tax money was spent for promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination.
The court acknowledged the line of argument of Gujarat government, represented by then Additional Advocate General Tushar Mehta, that the “use of tax-payers’ money for the repair, restructuring or construction of any religious place would offend the spirit and object of Article 27”.
IRCG, through senior advocates Y.H. Muchchala and Huzefa Ahmadi, countered that the liability of the Gujarat government to compensate destroyed religious places did not amount to promotion of a particular religion.
“The cause of action is based on the principle that if the State has by its inability or for whatever reason has failed to protect the fundamental rights or human rights, it has to compensate the aggrieved person for such violation,” IRCG's key submission was recorded in the judgment.
The attack on religious places of worship was an attack on religious symbolism of people who hold them as sacred, the NGO had argued.
Destruction of places of worship belonging to weaker section of the society by a dominant group is to inflict humiliation on them and thereby violate Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution.
However, Chief Justice Misra explained that Gujarat government had notified the scheme in October 2013 following a Supreme Court order in July 2012 to introduce a scheme for extending ex gratia aid to authorised religious places destroyed or damaged in the 2002 riots.
Noting that places of worship of all religions was affected by the riots, the apex court said the ex-gratia scheme was a way to create an “atmosphere where there shall be complete harmony between the groups of people”.